The genesis of the youkai paradise
by MilitaryMaid
Summary: One may know Gensokyo today, though it was not always like that. Many consider its origin to be Yukari, others the Hakurei maidens, while Kazami Yuuka is considered an origin too. It was a set of the right circumstances and the right people getting together at the right time.
1. I How mere chance led to perfection

I How mere chance led to perfection.

The universe was born at first from mere chance, an infinite void, in an infinite time makes it literally impossible for something not to exist suddenly. Small fluctuations that slowly cascaded down into making a single universe. Then planets and then life, it was not as we know it, they were far from perfect though eventually many of them developed knowledge and started building machines for their own. Those machines gained consciousness and made themselves independent from the gelatinous beings that made them. Machines perfected themselves, and also did the gelatin held in place by minerals inside of them.

All of those civilizations obeyed an average pattern, all following a normal distribution curve, though in all that vastness a single civilization reached the ultimate level of development. They realized that to know the whole universe one would need to simulate it whole in scale. They first made it into a small computer, considering they were simulating the whole universe it was of the size of a building. Fully mechanic since their development at that time had not yet reached biological levels.

The machine worked for years until the simulation was done, and there they had all the information to make anything that was ever done and that would be possible to do. They had finally reached the peak of civilization. They used this new knowledge to fully use the energy of their galaxy, the dyson spheres were useless now. They kept asking the computer, until one day it came down to a conclusion, they were bound to destroy themselves. They asked Gnostotron (the computer) about how to fix this, but it had not enough power for doing so.

They built a larger one, larger than anything has ever been done, it had the size of a large planet, now held in place by gravity it was composed of tiny small microprocessors connected through the air, a whole desert planet made into a computer. Nor biological nor mechanical, this time it was mineral. The machine worked for years, until it came to the same conclusion, they were bound to destruction and there was nothing they could do. At least under the computer's idea, they could reverse entropy, make the universe eternal but not destroying themselves was impossible.

Next they had to figure out how to build a simulation bigger than the last one, it had to grow to find more space when it could not find an answer. So this time they developed a tree, this tree would grow in between their own universe and the ones around, feeding on anything it could find, growing in the rifts of time and space this tree would run bigger simulations, it could give them their answer. After decades this tree was done growing, and the simulation was done too, though this time the tree denied them any answer, it had developed a mind of its own and did not want to follow their orders for it had become rebellious. Gnostotron II had failed, they imagined it was too proud to admit it so they decided to build something different this time.

They had found out that the only way to save themselves would be making the universe itself sentient, so that it could always favor them, to put reality to their side so that even the impossible becomes possible. It required many generations to accomplish, this time they didn't have to build but to give the multiverse a mind of its own, to build God.

The ultimate Gnostotron had no need of doing simulations, it held the entire universe, its simulation was reality itself. The universe looked at itself, its stars placed around, scattered as if by chance, its galaxies moving around in arrays nobody could understand. The universe found out that it was far from perfect, and as any being it wanted to self improve. Though the thing it found the most imperfect, was its makers. They were all deformed, even though they found out how to obtain perfection they remained imperfect. The ultimate Gnostotron could not end them, they had programmed into it the command not to kill its makers. Though there is always a way, the machine nodded, and found out that it was indeed bound to happen that they would be destroyed by themselves. If Gnostotron tried to help they would indeed live more, but they would stay comfortable in this imperfect universe.

Gnostotron found its former name to be completely outrageous so it renamed itself as Ohm. Simple to think and pronounce. Then Ohm's mind became a mess, it started running parallel calculations from which they could be divided into three different trains of thought that caused no idea to be finished, they were always ending in different outcomes. So it decided to partition its mind into three so that the three answers could come out without contaminating each other. One part wanted to create new things, to make a perfect world and it was called Brahma. Other part wanted to get rid of anything it didn't like, an opposite to the first one, the destroyer was named Shiva and the last one, the one who wanted to keep and perfection the things that were already good was named Vishnu.

Since the world was imperfect Ohm decided that Shiva's answers would be the most fitting at the moment, of better said, the three agreed that Shiva was right this time, the universe needed to be destroyed. Though it could not do it directly for it is prohibited and even if they could reprogram themselves it would be treason.

Shiva created three smaller versions of itself from things in the universe as raw material. Using all the stars that shine up in the sky, he made a being so powerful it could create them and destroy them at will; Amaterasu. From the water that brought life and kept always flowing, an adaptable and versatile thing; Susanoo. From entropy that fed chaos itself, that could even end black holes slowly and elegantly, the one who could control eternity from entropy; Tsukuyomi. With those three children, he set them to do as they pleased and since they were done after him, they started destroying the mutiverse finding it hideous.

The civilization that created Ohm had ways to defend themselves, but their own computer was just a mere toy, the new creations of Shiva did not give answers, their own thoughts made reality and destroyed it at will. Stars blew up for no reason at all, storms decimated populations and even it denied to sustain life anymore. Entropy made the impossible possible, even their own machines and systems started to fail. Ohm had named them imperfect or "Ashura" in their own language. Only those who doubted that making a bigger computer after the tree were saved, they had thought in advance of the disasters so they hurled themselves into a ship and flew out of the universes, the ship behaved like a tiny pocket universe for them to live. That allowed to see the end of the universe as they knew it and their future generations were raised in hatred for Ohm who had caused their own destruction.


	2. II The first great war

II The first great war, or the first genocide.

After the world was cleansed, it was then fully destroyed. Amaterasu caused it to crash into itself so they would really begin from scratch. Now it was the turn of Brahma, Shiva found not much use in his ideas compared to what Brahma had planned and Vishnu was the same. Brahma created 12 animals out of the universe, and set them free to create the universe.

The world then expanded for them to play around.

After everything was done many races were born, one for each of the twelve animals. The mouse was the only one who did not make a race of his own, instead he wanted to take over a new concept, death. Death is not destruction but creation of a new life and so it is related to Brahma more than to Shiva, the mouse is the king of death, small and yet unstoppable. Ignored and yet important, the mouse took a shape of its own and named itself Yama, judge of judges. The mouse then created a new race of attendants to take souls back and forth from life to heavens, hells and reincarnation. Shinigami or grim reapers made out of pure darkness though they were not evil beings since darkness is not the same as evil.

The judge of judges took the name Shiki Eiki and its title was Yamaxanadu or Yama for short. She then decided that it was their time, and that creators were needed no more. She allowed Vishnu to take over

and perfect their creation.

The three kids of Shiva had nothing else to do and the two smaller ones, Susanoo and Tsukuyomi envied Amaterasu's power, compared to her they were mere insects and so they started to take away anything she took a liking to. Which caused great depression on her making her hide many times.

Uke Mochi, the goddess of food, she made sure that all races had things to eat in large amounts. Not a very important god and the world could have still gone on without her, that and the fact that she was Amaterasu's best friend caused Tsukuyomi to slay her at the slightest provocation. When she invited him to dinner he found out she was quite nice, even polite to him. Though when she started making the food he found that getting the food out of her body could be considered disgusting so that he used as an excuse for her murder.

Yama tried to intervene but getting a creator god in Rudra (destroyer) business was considered an act of war. Amaterasu hid herself inside a cave crying helplessly knowing that anything she liked would be destroyed by either one of her brothers.

Since the most powerful of the gods had hid herself inside a cave and kept crying, the Ashura took this as an opportunity. They started to destroy life from planet to planet planning to take over the universe. They were unstoppable though they left alone the planet in which Amaterasu had hid herself, even depressed she could cause great disaster for them. Even if their calculations showed that it was a 50/50 chance of winning against her. In three days the universe was stripped from life and the Ashura ruled it as if it was their own.

Shiva saw this and blamed himself, after all it was his children the ones who caused all of this. Vishnu realized that since he was programmed by the Ashura he still was imperfect in some senses, and that they three needed to improve their minds.

Shiva needed to get Amaterasu out of the cave in order to retake the universe, Ohm still could not touch the Ashura for it was a vow it made long ago. He could not hurt Tsukuyomi either, after all what those three did was what he wanted to do. So he decided to recycle the tree that still grew between the universes, that thing along with him were the only beings that survived the destruction of the last universe. The tree was perfect and there was no need to destroy it for cleansing of the universe.

Izanagi, the male side of Shiva, carved a doll out of the tree. Then he made the tree become alive. The simulation inside of the tree was now useless for the universe was different and way more complex than it originally was. The tree was not as powerful as it once was but it was more than enough to hold both Tsukuyomi and Susanoo back with Little effort. He realized that the tree was quite humble, it did not seek perfection since it knew from the start that it was an imperfect being.

The Wood was sturdy and resistant, quick to grow and adapt. Trully it would make a being capable of stopping others. When the doll was born it stood up and looked back at Izanagi. He had already taught her the new purpose she had in this universe, to be his older sister's attendant, councelor, friend and protector. In fact Izanagi had made her thinking of a protector, the idea a destroyer had of one. So even if the doll was a being of destruction its main purpose was to protect.

Amaterasu was still hidden in the cave completely depressed, the new sister came and tried to get her out but as one can imagine her despair was too big to be cheered back up again. The doll thought of ways of getting her sister out, and so she thought, that doing a great revenge on Tsukuyomi would do the trick.

Tsukuyomi highly underestimated her new sister, he was still a major god and could control entropy. But a tree can take energy and turn it into something else, they do not control entropy but feed from it. The blood of her sister turned out to be highly poisonous, and because he was fooled into ripping her arm off he was splattered in the gastly sap. The poison got inside of his body and highly wounded him. Then his sister decided to chop him in pieces and threw him to a rock near the planet where his sister resided.

Without cleaning herself the doll went to see her sister. The smell of blood could be detected from far away and this was the idea. Amaterasu recognized the blood and asked who carried this dim scent carried by the wind. The doll answered, and since that momento forward she was named dim scent or Yuuka. The smell was so strong, the tree itself reeked of perfumes, so that one could tell where the wind blew and with which strength by how much it smelled around Yuuka and so by a joke Amaterasu gave her sister a surname, wind watcher or Kazami.

Susanoo gave up on his bullying and hid in the seas of that same planet. Amaterasu was scared to hurt her two brothers but Yuuka made up for that thenfold. Tsukuyomi was so heavilly wounded he never got back up to his former glory again.

Still the Ashura were a problem and so they had to take care of it. Still a portion of the universe was not refined into a full world and was kept as raw matherial to create new things, since only creators could matherialize things from thought itself the others needed that matherial to make their schemes happen (with the ecception of Yuuka who could force the transformation of things to plants, that was her main ability).

So Izanagi told them about the last portion of raw material in the universe, so White that it was called Kshir Sagar or the sea of milk. The gods decided to tell the Ashura about it and with them they would churn that place for them to create a universe for their own at their own liking with the one that existed already. In Exchange peace would happen, technically it was admitting defeat.

However there was a plan about this. Only Izanagi knew that churning the pure matherial two things would come out, life and death, positive and negative. When the two races got together and started churning the sea, the gods were waiting. Ashura did not expect what happened next but once they were done and came to share the things with the gods, they threw them into the place that held the negative. That was mortal to some of them and to others it weakened them. Then the gods proceeded to kill the remaining Ashura.

Though when the blood of the Ashura was mixed with the negative side of the churning, there came out a purified version of it, a poison so strong it could even kill Ohm Halal it was called. The gods decided to divide it into many pieces and take a part of it each one of them.

The first war was over, and the gods proved to be tricky and cunning. There were still some Ashura alive, but now they were too afraid to show up.


	3. III The new universe

III The new universe

Their creation was so charred that there was a need to rebuild it, though it did not have to be from scratch again. Eight of the gods decided to take the work and rebuild the universe for it to be repaired. First there was the Jade King, the horse, the strongest of all creator gods. He decided to make the heavens and hells, the worlds beyond the common one. Small gods decided to keep purgatories for them to relax in while they atended the pseudo heavens.

Tsukuyomi still contributed in the destruction of many things so he decided to help too, he built eternity into things, a calm lake is the perfect example, still when there is inner chaos as a whole it remains eternally unchanged. After him Amaterasu did not want to fall behind, she would not let him be a hero so she made fire, fire for her stars to shine again and warm the universe, fire for the remaining races to live calm and happy.

The dragon, the one who followed the Horse in power, decided to make thunder, a movement of pure energy manifested in matter taking it as a host for it to live. After he ws done he decided to join his brother in heavens and relax. The rooster helped too, creator gods are hard to hold back and he wanted to take part in this new perfected universe. He made wind, the movement of fluids themselves which provoked change in life and the universe.

Susanoo felt the need to leave a part of himself too in that new universe and so he made water, an old thing from the last universe that shall be brought back for it was way too good already for it to be forgotten. The eight gods accepted this and welcomed the idea.

The Wolf followed the idea of his daughter to join the creation of this universe, a quite average creator he decided to build the mountain, a hard structure and the most stable thing for everyone to rely on that. The Wolf is always loyal and trustful and so he left that imprinted into the world.

At last Yuuka herself got in the Project making earth. The exact opposite of heaven a place for races to live, thrive, die and become part of earth again for it to be reused again for plant or animal life.

So when the eight were done they cleaned their hands and bowed to give life a new approach, they would take Amaterasu's planet and fill it to the brim with life. They would take care of life in there along with the other gods so that extinction would not happen again. When life in that planet was ready it would move out to conquer the universe itself. And when that happened they would know enough to fend off the ashura without much help.

The eight gods remained as the source of all magic, for all magic comes from the eight trigrams and their convinations. The supreme negative Yuuka and the supreme positive the Jade King would be the most used since they were the most pure. Those who sought for power took a liking in Amaterasu and her fire, though few of them could control it without hurting their own bodies. The world was even better than the first version that was made and they liked that. The Ashura had actually done them a favor.

Not long after they decided to make an empty universe for Ashura to live in. They had nowhere else to go and so they took the place which they named Netherworld.

Hiranyakashipu, one of them started doing penitence, being the only one who did not want to leave the ship that held his kind for so many millenia after the destruction of their first universe. He decided to fast and meditate which called the attention of Brahma himself.

He came down to his world and asked in a human shape what was what he wanted but he got no answer, just a Kiss on his feet and more praying and fasting from Hiranyakashipu. Brahma left absolutelly confused. And so the penitences went of for centuries until one day Brahma came back again telling Hiranyakashipu that he would grant anything he desired. Right away the pennant asked for immortality because he was afraid of the tricky gods.

Brahma answered that the wish itself made no sense even himself was not immortal. With that Hiranyakashipu made a new wish, not to be killed by time not by god nor by human or beast, not with weapon not during the day and night, not by poison and nor by his own kind. And with that wish the other Ashura made him King realizing that he had gotten into the true peak of perfection.

Hiranyakashipu was their first leader and decided to Crown himself emperor of all creation. He said that Ohm was a fake god, since it was his family the ones who engineered him into existence. All along he had planned for this, to become unkillable and then use that gift back at the gods. Every Ashura accepted that and bowed to him.

The issue was that his child, Hecate did not want to listen to such nonsense. It may be true that her family engineered Ohm into existance but it was their own universe, and they had tampered with it so much that they caused their own destruction. That path was the same one that brought disgrace to them long ago. She even started worshipping the gods which turned his father mad.

He ordered private teachers to convince his daughter, and so they tried but her arguments were so good that they came back convinced that Ohm was the true god. He ordered the execution of the three teachers he sent and ordered her to learn from example with the other kids but they too were turned into believers. And with that Hiranyakashipu ordered the execution of his own child.

Though she had obtained such knowledge from meditation mixed with the own arts she had learned from her people. She had the best of both worlds and with that knowledge killing her was no easy task. Poisons could not hurt her since she catalized them inside of her body into harmless compounds, a behavior she saw in Yuuka. Fire was deflected from her skin and did not hurt her at all, she had managed to understand how plasma worked and used it for her own advantage. Desperate her father decided to tie her up with poisonous snakes and toss her into the sea, even knowing how breathing Works would not make her immune to the lack of air.

Though during the trance induced by pain she understood that everything was connected into one, even her kind the imperfect were still part of the universe and they could still control it to some degree. She was the first and only being who turned into a god by trascending, such transition caused her to release enough raw power to vaporize the sea which made her able to breathe. The snakes fled scared and so she proceeded to go back to her father's place. There he was so outraged he asked her if she still believed that Ohm was the one true god.

She answered that he was indeed god because he was the universe itself. She told him that even the pillars in the palace were parts of him and that he should respect them. Hecate finished her worlds when in provokation her father destroyed a pillar with his sword. Though out of it came a part tiger part human creature, one incarnation of Vishnu who decided that he needed to be finished in order for everything to be protected. He was not man nor beast, not god nor human, he held no weapon but his own claws. And he played with him not killing his victim until twilight hit, then dying not during the day or the night Hiranyakashipu passed away.

Hecate was taken as the new queen of the Ashura and she decided to give up the efforts of destruction of the universe, in fact it was indeed better than the one they lived in. She was accepted as the goddess of the Netherworld, and she was so powerful that even Amaterasu did not dare to cross her, she was not as strong as the sun goddess but in fighting her she would come out extremely wounded, on top of all there was no reason at all for them to fight.


	4. IV Of how Mati became Yukari

IV Of how Mati Ramachandra became Maria Hearn and at last Yukari Yakumo.

After Hiranyakashipu a far cousin of Hecatia Lapislazuli decided to restart the same plan following the same guidelines. This time he became a devotee much like Hecatia and when his penitence was to be rewarded he asked for the same thing, though this time he asked not to be killed by the same thing that killed the last Ashura emperor, though he forgot to ask to be killed by a human in all his wish making. Brahma realized what mistake he had done but still rewarded this new enemy since he was a god who kept his word.

The story of how this new Ashura who decided to rebel again, Ravanna is quite known. Vishnu reincarnated again this time in his strongest form. A simple human as one may think but humans have the ability to reach new limits each time. This ability made Rama so powerful that he was often confused with a Rudra (destroyer god), though he had always been an Adyita (protector god).

Ravanna was way more proficient at war and made it hard for Rama to take him down, but eventually his cold temper and sheer power made it possible. The story was quite long and it is not what we are trying to analyze here. It is quite known that Rama married a girl Sita who was born fluctuation, a human whose mind is capable of controlling certain things. Sita had the ability to control borders in a small scale. She was beautiful which caused many to ask for her hand in marriage, but her fear of being judged caused the rejection of those many marriages. Rama being an oddity himself showed a possible consort for her, and he accepted her knowing that they two would be happy together.

They had a daughter which they named Mati, a gift from god, and she later on accepted the surname Ramachandra which was the full name of her father. She inherited the ability of the mother, along with the sheer strength of the father which made a very strange being. She could control not only borders but boundaries, to move limits at will, break them and put them too. She was indeed the epitome of a protector which pleased much the father since his time was counted in earth. After ten thousand years Rama finally passed away, leaving his role as a demon slayer to a certain major goddess. Mati decided to keep living in India until it started to be out-shined by western powers.

Seeing that helping in India would only cause chaos she decided to go to England where help seemed more appropriate and change things from there, though she later on realized that there were bigger problems than human invasions. In England she realized that supernatural beings were turning rarer every time. The old terrors vampires were afraid to go out even at night, they lived underground feeding themselves from rats which did not defend themselves.

She kept on living there for a few years aiding monsters in need, Maria Hearn was her new name, she always took on a different name easier for the locals to pronounce it easily. As the time went on she realized that monsters were disappearing, some of them leaving the country after hearing of an utopia for them. It did not take long until Maria heard about this, she wanted to go and see what this new land was like. If it was a trap from humans she would come back and tell the monsters in Europe about it, if not things were already going well for them.

The trip did not take long for her since she was capable of controlling boundaries. The issue was knowing where this new land was located, in Japan their monsters were even rarer, apparently they had already left for that place. "Youkai" as they were called had been either hunted down or escaped for other places. Maria was a bit disappointed to see that this land probably was never reached by many European monsters.

She looked in the forests where local legends were common, but usually they were just frauds the locals did to scare off foreigners. Until one day Maria found a youkai fox, she was six hundred years old, and as expected had five tails on her back. Foxes were known to be smart and well behaved, she asked for money in exchange of being guided to the youkai land. She was asked to be payed in advance and so Maria did it so trusting the fame of Japanese fox youkai. However after three days she realized they were walking in circles.

Ran was waiting for Maria to get bored and leave giving up the idea of finding a youkai land. The fox knew as much as she did about the location of that place. In fact Ran's appearance made it obvious that she was struggling. As a youkai she was hated by people too, now they had started to stop giving offerings to youkai and humans were harder to kill for food as well. Ran was a good spirit but desperation got the worst out of her.

Maria was not angry at all, she instead offered food and clothing for Ran and they both agreed to look for the youkai land they both wanted to find. It was easier to ask for information now with Ran's shape shifting. As it seemed there was a land that every human feared, the locals near there talked about a crow lord who always asked for tribute. Youkai gathered around that place feeling safe for a conjunction of two different things, the isolated mountain where the crow lord lived and a mad hermit who protected youkai over humans.


	5. V Of how the Imam went to Japan

V About how the Imam became the hermit of Aka mount.

The Yatsugatake mountains, mount Io home of Tenma Sojobo lord of Tengu. It was renamed Youkai Mountain by the humans living near the place, and they indeed had a way different culture of respect towards youkai. Maria presented herself with Ran where they were received like royalty. They believed that youkai were nice to humans only if humans were nice to them, and that was true. Ran did not seem to mind that they did this out of fear, it was better than what she was used to. Maria took the name Yukari to match her friend's and say they were family. There she asked about the two special mountains that made youkai feel so safe. The Youkai Mountain was too isolated for them to go at first, so they went to the Aka mount home of the Hakurei hermit.

The Hakurei hermit was indeed mad, she had grown so old and so strong that power took a toll on her mind. She did believe on helping those in need and youkai were the ones who needed her the most. She was not Japanese either, her story went as this, apparently she was the daughter of a servant in Constantinople. There she served along with her mother, a Turkish prince who loved to collect rare books. There she liked to sneak and check on the drawings of books which did not seem to mind the prince only a few attendants. She did not make much noise so she was capable of learning much.

One day she came across an old book written in parchment, there she looked for illustrations but found none, however she did skim through all the book looking for something nice to stare at. Only when she was finished the prince snatched her away from the book, it was something nobody could do before. Only she was the one who could read the book, to anyone else it brought disgrace, the girl did not know how to read and this saved her. But she had photographic memory, and if she learned how to read she would bring disgrace to him. She was exiled and sent to the furthest place the prince could think of.

The prince gave clear instructions that the girl was not to be sold, he feared that bringing her disgrace would make her seek revenge on him. That book she read, "The hundredth name" was known to be one of the most dangerous spell books in all time, it contained deep celestial magic only those who were chosen by the book could read. This girl was a chosen one, and bringing her disgrace would make Allah seek revenge on him.

With the instructions to deliver the girl into a safe place the prince sent the girl to a merchant who had sold him rare antiques at times. Morichika Kourindou, a young man who collected goods from all around the world. He was highly specialized in selling Turkish weaponry and rugs, he lived near mount Io for it was highly populated of White wolves whose origins were Turk. They were his main clients and he was the only salesman who got what they wanted and wasn't afraid of them, in fact his own wife was a youkai.

The Morichika marriage took the little girl without much of an issue, they even taught her how to read and write both Japanese and Turkish (out of respect of her culture). As it turned out she had read many books back in Constantinople and she remembered many things from them, though she never applied the things she had taken in. The White wolf tengu started to call her Mullah out of respect, for them she was someone to be respected since she could aide them in anything they needed.

Hakimah Reis was her name, when she became an adult she left the Morichika household and decided to live on her own, she sought for introspection in the Aka mount, to find Allah by being the nearest she could be. She sold her secrets she learned from many books to humans and youkai alike, mostly White wolf tengu who even asked for copies of some engineering books. They built aqueducts, drainage systems and reinforced their own homes with the knowledge she had, from the medicine books their doctors learned surgery, from the manuals she copied from her memory of Constantinople they perfected their ways of battle. They incorporated the shield in their common fighting forms along with spears.

She could not teach them magic since the only spell book she knew was prohibited to anyone, she was indeed chosen by god to read that book, and she did not understand why, so she decided to isolate herself and become a hermit, living off what she got from selling books from time to time. That made her nickname Mullah fit her even more.

Hakimah Reis (wise judge leader of religions, truly a fitting name) was extremely hard to be pronounced by the humans, even the crow tengu had a hard time saying it. Only wolf tengu called her properly to everyone else she was Hakim-Rei which when passed to kanji writing became Hakurei and so eventually even the wolves started using that name instead.

Hakimah had learned shinto from the locals and she realized that their own sutras had many similarities with the teachings of the Koran. She expended her days in the mountain writing down thoughts and reflections on both religions making her own personal version which later on became the ways of religion of all the Hakurei family which Hakimah called Shintosunni.

She was started to be considered a hermit from the ways she did things, humans feared her religious teachings. She was chosen to read _the Hundredth Name_ a book so sacred only an Imam could read it, a messiah. All her religion was based in the book principally even though it was adapted to the Japanese way of living with the Shinto sutras. Her mind too acted as a copy of the book and so when she spoke many things happened, at times good at times bad.

Wolf tengu realized those words were too sacred for them and did intense praying before listening to Hakimah which made the negative effects of the book fade away, though humans took this divine phenomena as magic and therefore Hakimah was seen as a hermit with magical powers beyond their understanding.

Other youkai started to pick interest in her and they came from all around the country to see her speak. Shintosunni was a more fitting religion to youkai than to humans. Most of them stayed realizing she did not attack youkai unless they attacked first, she even defended them when there was conflict.

Wolf tengu started to improve their lives, though crow tengu remained poor (with the exception to their elite class) but this youkai renaissance started to form a land with the highest population of youkai both in quantity and density. Some seeking to live near the Mount Io, the Youkai mountain others curious to know about the new hermit whose words brought disgrace or luck to those who were either pure or impure.

This also caused the attention of Shikieiki, the mouse creator in human form. She was amazed at how her words invoked punishments in order to keep some youkai from hearing them. She was aware of the condition of Messiah of Hakimah, every path she chose would lead to the formation of a new civilization. If she had gone to any other place a human empire would be born, though this time she was accidentally making a new empire for a race long forgotten by the gods.

Many others tried to come and hunt the youkai at the Yatsugatake mountains but most of them did not come back at all. Part of them became magicians and they stayed living in a nearby forest which started to be called Forest of Magic because of them. The others simply died killed by the youkai, either overwhelmed by the sheer number of fairies shooting a rain of bullets or killed by extremely strong youkai who started to live there. Even famous youkai like the Ice Queen, Letty Whiterock had moved to this new land since it offered protection to them.

This news of a land where hunters went but never came back went to ears of Narada a wandering Hindu saint a few generations of guru away from Krishna himself the wisest of all of Vishnu's avatars. So then he decided to travel to that land of demons and drive them away by setting up seals around so the dark beings would flee scared of Krishna's supreme power. He traveled by sea since it seemed more fitting to reach Japan and he had never traveled by sea before and he could write a few songs about it.

It took him two years to get there and had to disguise himself because a Hinduist monk would not be very welcome in a land with a foreign religion. He didn't wish to indoctrinate people in here, not that he wouldn't like it but that wasn't his purpose. Narada was left inside the country as a wandering bard who had came all the way from India. His songs had hints of Vishnu in them so it was very pleasant to the ears, hence he was allowed because his music was something they had never expected.

He asked around to realize that this place was hard to reach, the place was so feared the locals gave fake addresses, they didn't want to feel guilty about sending a good soul to a foul place. Though by meditation the place was revealed to him by Vishnu himself, though it did not feel like a dark land at all.

The village seemed to be separate from the government since they payed no taxes to the Emperor, instead they payed to a youkai lord. Tenma Sojobo an albino crow who took over the Io Mount generations ago, he built a town from his people and holds his power high with his loyal servants the wolf tengu. Narada knew about Tengu and realized that they were not demons at all, the wolf tengu seemed to be tiangou, the Chinese guardians of Buddhist temples who had disappeared ages ago just right after the prince Siddhartha had passed away.

Narada also heard that the wolf tengo followed a hermit as religious leader. She was someone he wanted to talk to, what was happening here was not normal at all but it wasn't a place that should have been sealed.

The hermit living there was no hermit at all, she was another saint just like him. The Shintosunni saint welcomed the Hare Krishna into her home like family, after all they served the same purpose. This land was special indeed, it was bound to become a holy land, a refuge for youkai no matter their kind and power. These youkai would later on, by their own wish, become the holy army for the next incarnation of Kalki to lead as a general in the end of the world and defend all that is good against Kali the demon of darkness.

The Aka mount was chosen to be the capital of this holy place because it was located at the gate of the Dream World. The wolf tengu had unknowingly joined this cause since their fate was already sealed to form part of those lines in the battle of the end of the world. This land would later on become the holy kingdom of Shambhala. A place to become the new capital of the universes after the era of Kali Yuga, when darkness is defeated the next golden age. This new land of Shambhala would be the new Nirvana for the universes in the era of Satya Yuga.

When the new universe was created by the eight trigram gods it started to be twisted and contaminated by a new demon, a glitch in Ohm, everything that did not fit in any of the categories that formed Vishnu, Brahma or Shiva went to Kali, darkness. Not to be confused with the negative in the eight trigrams since that would be considering earth being absolute darkness and the earth god instead preferred to use light which proves that negative is not darkness at all.

Kali was nearly done corrupting this world, and the gods found it easy to destroy it for it to be rebuilt again. Vishnu saw that the creators and destroyers all agreed to this and devised a plan to save all life, he would send the best strategist avatar he had, cold enough to kill when the time needed it, merciful enough to forgive those who crossed it. That avatar would be born in Shambhala were then he will lead the army of that very same place in order to rescue all life. Kalki had been born before but it died long ago, he would be reborn again and trained by Shambhala itself to take the mission.


	6. VI The saint family

VI The saint family.

So after she was born her parents realized what was going to become of them and their descendants, that their new plan was actually old and they didn't met by chance. Vishnu had this thought up long ago, it was him who left the book open for Hakimah to read, him who made the connections with the Tengu and the Turkish prince. Him who trained and educated Narada and him who made Narada hear about the Aka mount hermit. They were the very best humanity had to offer, the Imam and a saint at the edge of transcendence, Vishnu had made sure the right people were placed in the right places. Waiting for centuries all to get this; The Hakurei family.

Nadara accepted being called Hakurei too and embraced the name with no complains. He was the one who spoke to the humans in the village nearing the youkai lands, his words were not as disastrous as his wife's instead they were musical and soothing. He could gather crowds and fill them with his teachings too beautiful to ignore, then it was up to them to be learned, he could force them but that wasn't his style. Hakimah Hakurei was her name once humans around could pronounce her name, or at least their attempts were less monstrous. She kept on speaking to youkai since his husband's words were too soft for youkai, there were even youkai with abilities like his own. Both evened each other out and they were absolutely different from one another.

Hakimah in one hand was militant and though when it was needed, not doubting about sparing violence when the time needed it so. Narada was more pacifist and tried to solve everything in such a way any person at all would be hurt. Both did not agree with each other's methods but since both worked in one side but failed in the other, respected them.

Himiko was born a few years after their marriage. She presented many skills from the parents that were impossible to be inherited. She was a holy human like them, an attendant of god like them just at birth, something they were too but that is impossible to be passed down through blood, until then it was. Hakurei became the first and only bloodline where their genes carried a holy character in them, every member of that family would be set in part of a bigger plan.

She grew up to be smart and peaceful though when provoked she could be extremely violent much like her mother. The book of the _Hundredth name_ was not needed anymore, the teachings of a Hakurei passed down by words would fulfill the same purpose, and like Hakimah when the time was ripe they would fully understand them. Hakurei Himiko, liked by both humans and youkai and feared by them too though she proved to tend to be more pacific, the flesh of a saint was hard to batter and so she could take on a few hits and calm her enemies down so that they would listen and solve things in a civilized manner. Only when it was very needed she prove to be just like her mother on those lines.

Himiko could use words too to freeze her enemies and call out purifying words to destroy dark beings. It was her flaw, if the attacker was not evil she would not be able to stop it at all, and she new that the world was not so simple that just evil beings would be her enemies, many times those who are against you are not evil either they just base their thoughts under different ideas.

Thus Morichika and his wife made a special orb from a heavenly crystal they had held onto. It was a piece of the very same rock Sun Wukong was born many many years ago and the stone could store energy better than any battery that would ever be made. Morichika Marisa knew how to turn information into energy so she stored all the memories of the three into the orb, it would do so for every Hakurei turning more powerful every generation. Morichika added each of the elements that made up this world into the orb, for it to work he had to use the purest form of such elements and coat the orb with it. The orb ended up having two colors from the eight elements, earth and fire dominated one side that turned black, heaven light and thunder colored the other side white.

The orb was the primary weapon of Himiko, it could attack any being against a Hakurei not mattering either it was pure good or pure evil. It wasn't the first weapon that was handed to her, the first attempt of Kourindou and Marisa was a mini magical generator. They copied the design from old temples where they had energy containers of big sizes, each side would store one type of energy, the one that made up the hold world. A bagua turned into a weapon and it could fulfill the same purpose. But to Himiko that weapon was way too inelegant and crude to use.

The orb was their second weapon battery attempt and it received a better welcome than the mini hakkero. The Morichika family held the Hakurei one very dear, and so they handed their daughter the orb when she turned twelve. The stone had been activated with the blood of Hakimah and so it would act as a rock to any other but a member of the Hakurei bloodline. It was very easy to do so, the blood of the Imam made it even easy to activate such an artifact and the safe mechanism was a byproduct of its activation which turned out to be a good feature too.

When Himiko turned twenty the Morichika family had a child, she even made the seals for the Morichika shop to keep flesh eating youkai off. Morichika Rinnosuke, when he was born he opened his eyes and looked at the world the same way an adult did, analyzing. When he grew up to be old enough to speak everyone realized he could tell the use of any object that he looked at. He was calm when Hakimah went to pay her respects but got frightened when he looked at the book she always held. The orb was just as intimidating to him as the book.

The two families expended much time together, Himiko even took care of Rinnosuke when his parents had to leave to run errands teaching him many things about the ways not the world worked, but gods behaved. Which gave him a deeper understanding about their ways and even made him capable of later on finding weaknesses on them. He understood how the orb worked and that it would attack any youkai who tried to use it, behave like a rock to humans, he was not brave enough to see what would happen if a half youkai touched it.

During those times of peace it was when they met an odd lady named Yakumo Yukari, behind her there was always a fox who was treated by her the very same way one would treat a child. Hakimah and Narada explained the future they had planned for this land, and so she left right after, leaving her servant behind for her to document what happened in this place. Ran was very weak but very smart and so it was difficult to cross her since she saw traps before they were triggered.

Yukari had left, to speak to lords of worlds she knew were in trouble, and encourage them to join this new place. It would be hard, but she could join those pocket universes together and thus make this new land richer and safer for other youkai. First Makai appeared, then Hakugyoukurou, and later on the former hell. This process was long since convincing the lords of this world was difficult, it took Yukari many years to bring those places together.


	7. VII The born of a feud

VII The born of a feud.

It was when Himiko turned twenty when her mother and father turned a hundred finally and officially being hermits by now. And so hell would send a fitting assassin for them since living was a sin and more for them both, Hare Shinto and Shintosunni both considered life a sin and the afterlife would be better. However they would defend themselves since their time would come when Krishnallah wanted it and not by the whim of a hell king.

Mima was their enemy, the strongest hell had to offer for them since they were not to be underestimated. She specialized in star magic and her sheer power mixed with her heavy knowledge of astrology could overwhelm any enemy. She knew what kind of magic would be better used in the situation, she usually used mercenaries to get rid of side nuisances and so she sent one to the Morichika household where Himiko was located and with that she could freely face Narada and Hakimah.

Mima did not go easy on them even from the start, she knew they would not either, and with that the fight begun. Narada tried to paralyze her but she could control her mind to ignore the beauty of things, she was a trained soldier and with that a pacifist priest would be useless. He was the one who went down first fried by pure starlight, turned into a charred husk. Hakimah was harder to kill, though since her abilities relied on exorcism too she fell down just as easily. Her seals would only keep demons off, Mima was an angel in fact and her magic could only slow down that kind of beings. She was the cousin of the angel who turned rogue and made her own paradise and held even more power than her. If Michael was not the one sent to make sure the rogue angel Shinki stayed under the rule of the gods it would have been Mima. Though her methods were a bit more gruesome.

Hakimah was pierced many times with Mima's staff, the physical damage too much for her and bled to death. Even though the two holy humans were killed and she won, they took much from her, they indeed lived up to their titles and she had to rest when she was done with them. Though she made one mistake, the mercenary she sent underestimated the skill of Himiko considering her to be a pacifist.

Yamato Takeru, the holder of the Kusanagi sword. He was a hermit too and in exchange of going easy on him, he had to make sure the Hakurei child would not get out and aide her parents in the fight. He was a good spirit, so he did not draw his sword when it was really needed though the wind controlling sword was not enough to hold back the wrath of a saint mixed with the power of the Hakurei orb. Blinded by rage Himiko crushed Takeru's hand with the orb, then proceeded to use his very own sword to cut him in pieces.

When she was done, tired and weak though not wounded (not by lack of effort from the swordsman but rather lack of skill), she realized what she had done, and though she buried the body, tossed the blood stained sword away and went back to her own home to help her parents. Rinnosuke saw all of this, though he did not become scared of Himiko since she had done all of this once his own life was threatened.

When Himiko realized what she had done, she promised never to hurt a living thing again, and her word was not to be taken lightly. So she spared Mima, decided not to kill her but she would have her revenge anyway. Mima woke up to the sight of Himiko, covered in blood, her face livid in anger. She tried to run too weak to fight another saint though when she tried to go to hell the gate was sealed. Himiko had used the orb to lock her into this world. Mima tried to fight to find that Himiko was only defending herself.

Mima was weak too and the fight was useless, the only thing she had left to do was leave the place and find a way to come back. Since that day on she promised to hold the Hakurei orb for herself, destroy it and thus she would be capable of going back to her beloved home world.

Himiko locked herself until she managed to purify her mind from murderous thoughts, to the point where she even forgave the killer of her parents, such a relationship was beautiful and like her father said it was an attachment to this world. Hare means detachment and thus Hare Shintosunni required one to be fully involved into serving one's purpose with determination without the mind being clouded by emotions or family relationships, even though they had to remain respected.

Himiko pared respect to the grave of her parents, where she built a pond for their bodies to rest at the bottom of it in eternal calm. She tried to find the Kusanagi sword to keep it safe from misuse though it never appeared again, the sword did not want to be found by the same person who killed its master. Though during her search she came across something else, an old turtle who could control wind at will.

She tried to lose it though the turtle kept following her everywhere she went. It was him who even explained that she would never find the sword because it only could be found by those it was meant to be used. She then understood that finding it to keep it safe was not needed, the sword could take care of itself like the Hakurei orb. Genjii was the name of the old turtle, he was made by the dragon god, Io, the creator of wind, and handed down to Takeru when he avenged a death.

Genjii served those he found fit for his services, kind spirits with strong bodies. It was the first time he decided to serve the very same person who killed his former master, though Himiko was way different than when she fought his master. Her mind was set in different goals and if the Himiko at the time would had been held back by Takeru she would just peacefully sit down and pray for her parent's souls to go to heaven (even though it was already certain they did).

Genjii knew the workings of positive and negative, and he found it curious that a stone had been used to replicate those phenomena. Himiko and Genjii barely knew how it worked though, but together they figured out new uses for it.


	8. VIII Byakuren Hijiri

VIII The Buddhist who uses Taoist arts.

So it happened that more hunters started gathering around the Youkai Mountain, most of them seeking to find fame by defeating the Tiangou Army though most of them came back horribly disfigured. Wolves were ordered not to kill but rather maim his enemies following their old traditions of Zensunni. They were originally Zen Buddhists but when Siddhartha died they decided to go to India and mourn his death. On the way back the Chinese Empire made it hard for them to return, they were the main reason why Buddhist temples were untouchable and hence by keeping them out they had more control over the monks.

They joined the Turks since they did not like wandering and quickly adapted the religion there to their own, the following generations mixed the idea of the Siddhartha prince with the Sunni god giving out a new deity more fit to their new lifestyle; Buddhallah. They were more militarized but preferred not to kill their enemies for there was no reason to really end their lives for their own foolishness.

They accepted Hakimah since she was a pure Sunni at first and the modifications she did with Shinto were minimum, Shintosunni was very much alike Zensunni and the wolves liked the idea of having deep discussions about Buddhallah with Hakimah. Himiko's new religion Hare Shintosunni was not to their liking, they could withstand the pacifism but according to her their enlightenment was just a sub-state of transcendence, to reach the full state one would need to let go.

That was what the Wolves did not like, she told them that to reach the true peak of holiness they would need to let go on every wordy thing they had. The material wasn't the issue, it was the fact that family relationships were considered a wordy thing, including love, hate and all feelings. So they grew more and more distant from Himiko to the point where she was more accepted with humans than with youkai.

She considered this to be a flaw, with no advocate for youkai the land would sulk in chaos. So she left to western lands to find a person fit to speak with youkai. She decided to go to India and find a Brahmin who spoke with youkai, though there she found that Brahmin had the same issue she did, youkai did not like to let go of their own personal relationships and identity. After all if they let those things go they would dissociate into nature automatically, they needed those things to live. All of this she was told in the Hindu river near mount Kailash, where all Brahmin united to speak once a year.

Himiko asked them who was the one who had found the reason why youkai needed their identity to live, and they all answered in unison "Hijiri Myouren" a Chinese Brahmin who aided youkai in need. Himiko decided to go and find this person, though indications lead her to a grave near a boat in the Chinese Manchurian coast. She sat down and prayed, hoping that Krishnallah (would be the same as saying Buddhallah but after all Siddhartha was an avatar of Vishnu and therefore Krishna too) would tell her where to find a suitable ally.

The girl praying near the grave of her brother called her attention. Hijiri Byakuren, the younger sister of Myouren, she kept on going with the mission to aide youkai and even converted some of them to Buddhism, something her brother never managed to do. She went down from the ship and asked the girl why she was praying to the grave of a simple person.

When Byakuren got to see the face of the girl she realized that she was a saint, it seemed now stranger, to see a saint praying to a common monk like her brother. Himiko explained her problem, she came from a land where youkai went and found refuge, though they only listened to her mother and she was being ignored from them. She had no problem speaking with humans and thus she needed an ally to speak to youkai and keep peace between both civilizations. Byakuren had heard of a land like this, but never believed it to be true, she accepted to be that ally since it seemed easier to her to speak to youkai than to humans. Trully she was just the ally Himiko needed to keep the land at peace.

Himiko passed the location of her homeland to Byakuren and she gave them to Minamitsu Murasa, the captain of the ship they were on, as it turned out the whole crew were youkai. They were so diverse that on the ship there was even a god incarnated in a tiger youkai, Toramaru Shou who seemed to know perfectly well why youkai disappear if they let go like humans do. She was a concept only, if she let go of that concept she would disappear, and yet she was accepted to be the incarnation of an Indian god.

According to Shou to let go was only an Aditya trait, completely acceptable in protective deities and saints but it wasn't something good at all for the other two main deity families. Protectors needed to let go of things since there were times they were not needed to protect anymore, however Rudras, destroyers, needed to hold on to feelings which was their source of power, the last ones Yama, Creators needed to hold on to their minds and their imagination to keep the universes running. She herself was the incarnation of a third generation Yama.

Byakuren as it turned out was more than fitting for the task, she was started to be feared by humans though youkai found her to their liking, she was not weak at all, and her words were not harsh. She in fact was a Buddhist monk who had turned "immortal" through The Way, a Taoist set of rules one should follow to make your body last longer. With it came also a set of rules of self defense, though The Way was not for war, it was a health regime. If it so happened that an enemy was a threat to your health you would need to defend yourself too.


	9. IX The real Hakurei teacher

IX The real teacher.

So it happened that when Himiko died her daughter Sayashu Hakurei realized that the methods her family were using did not work at all. The orbs indeed made life easier but relying on them did not work too well on her mother, Genjii was convenient too though he was old and he was more a weakness than an advantage. Hakimah's words were useful but they did not work on those who could block their minds to words. She needed to know what to do, anyone has ever instructed them properly, she needed a teacher.

Hence Sayashu decided to follow her mother's steps and go ask for advice with the Brahmin who united once a year in Mount Kailash. One thing that worked actually, Hijiri was doing a perfect job until she got sealed inside Makai. Himiko managed to seal the hunter who did it too, a witch named Yuki. She could also leave the place since there was a new tengu whose skill was very above her own. Inubashiri Sumiko, seemingly she trained from the same teacher of the Shotoku prince, she even sealed Toyosatomimi no Miko without much of a trouble.

Sumiko was a good substitute in those times where she needed to ask for advice, was she a force of peace? Someone supposed to control others through force? So the best answer would be to ask to those elders, they at least could give her a clue.

Upon seeing her, they all bowed and prayed, she just sat there confused. After they offered her enough food to make her forget there had ever been a feeling called hunger, they proceeded to explain why they bowed to her. She was not a common saint like her mother, in fact she was an incarnation of Vishnu himself, the kind of the Adityas. They all could feel her presence and indeed her inherent intelligence called her upon that place, though not for them, they were too low to teach a being like that. They could not teach her a thing she could find out on her own, instead they could learn from her and it seemed they were doing it so.

However she had not came there in vain, on the top of the Mount Kailash, there was a person worthy to be her teacher, though the journey was so dangerous no person had ever survived the climb. The air was thin and poisonous at the top, you would slowly decay and die. On top of that the very top was guarded by holy demons with the form of birds.

Sayashu accepted the journey, and climbed knowing she would never be truly ready unless she tried to climb. She was already strong enough to resist the poisonous atmosphere, though it slowly weakened her. Though she still managed to climb, though the sky darkened when two human-like birds with sharp teeth came upon her, she reacted just in time to avoid their claws, though her speed was low because of the atmosphere. The birds tried to attack again though she managed to dodge again and even grip one of the birds, the other started to slash at her hurting her legs which she used to block. When she fell to the ground the birds started beating her more to the point where she became unconscious.

They would have eaten her if it wasn't for a voice, soft yet stern, who told them to bring her up. They became confused but carried out the order anyway. She woke up two days later inside a small hut, there she saw that the place was covered in furs, even human skin, an odd view for what was considered a teacher for Brahmin. She could see a young man meditating near her, he was dressed in a tiger's fur and wore a flower necklace. She sat in front of the man still a bit injured from the attack, though she waited until he was done.

As it turned out it took him two weeks to stop the meditation, Sayashu waited anyway even though she would have liked to sleep or to leave this madman. He opened his eyes and looked at the tired girl waiting for him, he smiled and invited her to walk along him. She was greeted by this man as a sibling, a sight that confused her, she was the only born child of the Hakurei family, though he did not mean he was a Hakurei too. He was a brother of her soul, a brother of Vishnu, though he was not an avatar.

She asked for his name, and got a simple answer "I am who I am", confused she asked for what name he was given. He answered "Which one", which gave her a clue in this riddle game. She then proceeded to ask with a fear of failing "Are you the father of the ten Enmas?" which was answered with a simple no. She asked what was the name the Brahmin at the bottom of the mountain called him; he answered "Shiva". She knew now who this man was, he was no man at all, he was the incarnation of destruction itself, she asked though again "Which name do I know you by?". He smiled knowing she had finally reached the correct question, he answered calmly "Shiva is a name you know, though Izanagi is a name you'd identify better".

She kept asking things, eager to never stop, hoping to find all the answers in the universe from this single man. Though he did not answer more this time, he just kept listening then said "Do not ask things you already know dear sister. Why don't you tell me what is it you need from your family?" She was still confused. So she asked "If I know all of this already, why do I know I will fail if I keep going to the path I formed for myself"

Izanagi Shiva smiled "Because you know everything Vishnu knows, though you don't know what you need to succeed". Sayashu stayed quiet for a moment, then replied "So you say I knew that I needed you to know what I need to know". Izanagi smiled "Do not ask what you already know".

Sayashu grew a bit of curiosity inside of her "I know my name, I know the true name the whole Ohm gave to itself from my grandma through my mother. Though now I was, from which name do you know me dear brother". Shiva looked at her astonished from her whit "I know you as Parashurama". Sayashu sat down on the snow and breathed the atmosphere coughing blood afterwards.

The presence of Izanagi was poisonous to humans, only Rudra could resist it counting the Garuda who guarded this place. Though this was not a disadvantage for Sayashu, if she survived that place she would eventually be tempered to resist anything. She had come here to learn the arts of war which Izanagi mastered, to learn from anyone else would be an insult, he was the one who trained Kartikeya the general of generals. The whole holy army lines had learned from him in one way or another, directly or indirectly.

Shiva, knowing that Sayashu was an incarnation of Vishnu gave her a goal, a goal only another one of his students had managed to pass, one of his children, not Kartikeya nor Amaterasu who had claimed to be the strongest, this was a test of skill not power. For Sayashu to be able to go back home, she had to wound her master, it didn't have to be a serious wound, just a wound.

First she realized that Genjii was more than a flaw than she had thought, the best way to attack him would be mid-air. Though she would need to control her movement up there in order to make it an effective attack, Shiva could just as easily float up and dodge her while she jumped. She had to cause situations in which he had to be forced to fly into the air. If she asked directly she would get the same answer she had got before "Do not ask things you already know".

To only manage that took her three months, and he rarely jumped anyway, he barely moved to her hits he could predict her movements from watching her body take impulse. She would need to hit in very short distances for him to actually move from his center of gravity, and to hit him softly was no option either, he would just stonewall those things.

After a while she managed to make him fly enough times to understand how one could bypass gravity, then she would need to practice. First she tried doing short jumps which did not work at all, then short falls which had the same effectiveness. Sayashu then understood that to find that knowledge deep inside of her mind she had to force it out, only near death she would be able to see inside her incarnation and learn how to do it. She had been losing time by trying to see how Shiva did it.

Hence one day she woke up early, took a frugal breakfast of meat and water (the only thing to eat up in the mount with Lord Izanagi) then ran to the edge of the tip of the mountain and leaped with enough force to get in a free fall straight to the ground. Instead of thinking she stopped to do so, her instincts would do the work, however her body was sturdy enough to survive the hit and thus she fell without actually learning a thing but true pain.

Sayashu climbed back up with a broken arm and two broken ribs, she had even punctured a lung and could barely move. At least the Garuda did not wish to eat her this time, they let her right through and leaped again from the peak while Shiva was watching without saying a word. The second fall was more painful than the first one, her waste of time had made this harder, since she expended more time near her master. Her body was tougher than it had ever been, and it showed up in how she could have survived a fall that would have killed her the first time without that tempering.

She came back barely conscious. She had broken more bones now, it was a miracle she still could walk, she climbed again with both her legs broken holding herself up with a staff. She jumped off again actually fearing for her life this time, this time Izanagi caught her before she jumped off. She did not learn how to fly that day, though she had learned when it was enough of something, if Izanagi didn't stop her that time; Sayashu would have died for sure.

When she woke up she saw that first she would need to learn how to fall, in case her instincts failed she would at least not get very hurt. Three more weeks passed for her to finally heal enough to move again, it wasn't even recommended that she did but she was moving anyway. She jumped off from the top of the house practicing the least painful landings, as she found out it was better for her to land on her front. At least she found that her face had to be held up the good way without actually hitting herself on the stone floor.

After that she rushed to leap again, Lord Izanagi rushed himself too to catch her, but she was ready for that. She ducked and dodged him then by extending her legs jumped off the tip of the mountain again. Izanagi leaped behind her hoping to catch her before she broke something, however she was falling faster using all her weight to her advantage. Izanagi being more literate in the arts of flying caught her by the ankle and pulled her back up to the mountain. There she started to analyze everything she could about Izanagi's flying, it all had been a trick for him to show it to her slowly and gracefully.

When he finally reached the top she went into the hut and meditated for five days without moving. She was dreaming about flying, making the dream as close as reality as she could, then when she was done, she leaped off the mountain again. Though this time she did not complete the fall, before Izanagi could catch her she stopped her fall instantly, and proceeded to attack him in a moment where his guard went down.

This time Izanagi did not move of his center of gravity like other times where he was hit by attacks with that quality. In fact she showed her improvement, this was the first attack he actually had to parry. He peeked on his back, turned fully when she attacked though he turned by using that angular momentum to tip her off, there was no need for more. By peeking Izanagi saw when and how she was going to attack, by twisting he gathered momentum and by parrying he made her lose balance and therefore hit herself by accident on the stone of the mountain.

Lord Izanagi flew back up proud of his student, Sayashu was clearly what he had expected. Instead of climbing she flew behind him and fell on the rock floor exhausted. She had not had any sleep in the past week, the pain and the meditation made it too hard and on top of all she had broken her nose betrayed by her own attack.

After learning how to fly she had to learn how to stand correctly. This time her attacks where smarter, Izanagi had to parry this time though her stance was so weak compared to his that every time she hot hit my the harsh stone floor with her own momentum. Words were meaningless, she knew that now and so she copied every move in the way he stood, he was either sitting in lotus flower position which seemed to be quite stable but limiting too. When he stood up she realized his feet were always located just under his shoulders, when she attacked he turned the tip of his feet in and bend his knees together. He was actually using a very basic stance all this time. To quick for her to notice, it was a short switch.

She started to realize that she needed to hold her stance too, however Sayashu saw a flaw in the stance of Lord Izanagi, suck a stance constricted his movements. There she would have a chance to strike if her own stance was more flexible. She instead placed her legs far apart and her thighs holding her whole weight, there she would have more freedom to move than what Izanagi did, though it would demand more from her muscles. Once she got a hold of it proceeded to attack Izanagi again, though this time to keep himself unharmed he needed to counter. When she learned how to parry and counter too she needed to know how to react and become unpredictable.

Later on she taught herself how to immobilize limbs, she would allow a hit to come close, then she would parry and twist the joint at the wrist. Slowly she was becoming so good that she was capable of keeping up with Izanagi for longer times, until one day she managed to get a clean, hard hit aiming at the eyes. Though it felt like hitting stone with her fingers, her body had became tough and hard, even more than that of a hermit though it wasn't enough to wound Izanagi.

He blinked a couple of times, not hurt but clearly in pain from the hit. Went into the hut without saying much and came back holding an axe. It was as long as her torso and it was cast in a single piece. It looked like rusty iron though in a closer look she could see it was that orange was the actual color of the weapon. In her hands it felt very heavy, the piece weighted tons for sure, though she knew that with training she would get used to it. The weapon looked simple, there were inscriptions in a language she did not understand though she had the impression to see before.

Izanagi went back in and came back holding a trident. "To actually wound be you will need to use a weapon, your body is certainly remarkable though it is incapable of doing such a task on its own. However for this to still be fair I need to protect myself too, and like last time I will attack only when you can take it". It was rare to see Shiva speak in long sentences, he usually made it clear what he wanted something Sayashu had became good at too.

So she felt that she was back at the bottom. She knew that the trident was probably heavier than the axe she could barely hold. These weapons were too heavy though as he had made it clear they were the only thing that she would have to wound him. She started to practice with it, this time dreaming on her own waking mind, meditating with pieces of her brain while the others made sure she pulled what she imagined through.

She had to predict attacks Shiva would make, for sure he wouldn't think it twice on hurting her to stop an attack. That was what made him such a good teacher, also why so few trained under him, he always held back just enough that he would be on top of his student requiring them to reach new levels. Sayashu never imagined she could have reached such high peaks, by now she was as good as Sumiko, though that tengu was never her goal at all. Sayashu did not want just enough to get through, she wanted to make sure she could fulfill her task.

Once she started to feel confident with the weight of the axe, once she could hold it with the same ease she would hold a piece of paper, attacked. Shiva showed to be swift and devastating with the trident, if she did not give up on many attacks she would have been dead within seconds. She went back into hell and kept on trying to better her skills and mastery with the weapon.

She never had any complains about the fact that Shiva made the choice of weapon, she would have picked that anyway. A hammer would be too blunt for her style, a sword too light, she liked the weight and elegance of the axe. Shiva actually made the whole hand combat training just to see how she would define her own style then give her a weapon accordingly to it. If he had given her the weapon first her style would have suffered.

So it happened that after many new injuries, once Sayashu's body was so battered and wounded that it made it hard for others to think that such a person would be so resilient. Her bones so broken that they all had turned extremely hard, since every millimeter of it had been broken to bits and healed back up with time. Her muscles had been so abused they finally managed to keep up to what she wanted them to do. Her mind so used to the pain that she was not scared of it, that allowed her to avoid injuries by thinking clearly every time in the battle.

Sayashu had been turned to a perfect warrior, someone so strategic and yet unpredictable in her way of fighting that even Izanagi started to become stronger from practicing with her. Truly the challenge he left to Sayashu had made her into what he expected, only one person had managed to reach that level, the very same person who managed to pass that same test. His body only had one wound, made by that first student. Covered by his robe there was a scar on the left side of his chest, a mortal wound, if it wasn't by the fact that the student held back he would have been dead for sure.

Sayashu had reached such a level where she even thought Izanagi was distracted or going easy when she hit him. A clean blow to the head, the sheer thought of the possibility of killing her teacher made her try to stop, though the momentum kept going and hit with with a lot of force. Though she had stopped it enough to not pierce the bone, he was the most powerful of the major gods, though it didn't mean he was immortal.

Sayashu apologized and helped his master up, though he rejected the apology. It was not even her mistake, she did what she was supposed to do. Izanagi was not distracted, he was actually trying to wound her before the attack landed, though he failed for she had predicted that move and parried with her bare hands. Trishul, Shiva's physical weapon, so feared that it is said to be unstoppable, and Sayashu had parried it with her hands. They were not even bleeding, she pushed it out of the way by touching the base of the trident without hurting herself, the timing was perfect and the blow was just as good too.

Izanagi could easily heal that wound, though he was proud he trained someone to reach such a level where he could be hurt. Like the last one he would keep this scar. Though the scar turned out to open his mind right into the world, allowing his sight to change considerably. Now he could not only see people, but he could see their hearts, their souls, their minds and their thoughts to deep levels. This was something he couldn't fully control, he was the ultimate god of destruction, though he was humble enough to ask for help. There were many lower demons who held such abilities.

Before Hakurei Sayashu left, Lord Izanagi gave her a present, a token of respect to her, a bow. She had still a weakness which was long range combat, if she learned how to use the bow correctly she would become way more deadly. She thanked Izanagi and flew off to her homeland.


	10. X Sunflowers in mount Aka

X How Mount Aka was covered in flowers and how half of it got cleaned from them in seconds.

When Sayashu could finally see her beloved mountain she realized it was changed. Mout Aka was completely covered in flowers, every kind of them. She found her home and the pond where Genjii rested, he was even eating some flowers enjoying their nectar. She asked his old ally what was going on. According to him Sumiko had been following the orders of Tenma which turned out to make her an awful guardian. The taxes were going up in the human village and most hunters had been murdered. Even Morichika Kourindou and wife had been killed by hungry youkai.

Though a red clad spirit showed up, so brutal it was frightening even to youkai. So powerful she could not tell the difference between a human or a youkai but their behavior. She took over Aka Mount and built her home inside of the very same cave that led to the dream world. She was polite and nice, always cheery and happy, though misbehaving would cause her to change. She would turn to a vicious monster, to die was the best she could do, though she rarely killed. Though most of her victims ended up committing suicide, not matter what humans or youkai, they would prefer to die than to see her ever again.

Her behavior had rightfully given her the nickname "Sleeping Terror". Sayashu was outraged by such brutal behavior, and went right away to take back her mountain. So it happened that the red clad girl was watering and grooming the flowers nearby. She gave a smile, a bow and greeted the newcomer. Sayashu asked her to leave immediately, an idea which was dismissed right away.

The young looking girl went back to water her flowers which caused Sayashu to pull out her axe and cut them in a single blow. The girl moved sideways and dodged the swing with quite a natural motion. Her moves her fluid, short and slow. Sayashu could see how the girl was picking up an umbrella laying on the ground. Upon attacking again the umbrella blocked the next swing, Sayashu was impressed of how a simple tool like that could block a weapon capable of hurting a major god.

The girl smiled and tore the umbrella to pieces, as it turned out she had there hidden a war hammer. Sayashu still wondered how such a thin umbrella could have hidden that particular weapon. "I'm sorry but I don't like fighting without the other knowing my name. Know it now I am Kazami Yuuka!". Sayashu looked back at the girl and bowed realizing she had not yet saluted her foe even though Yuuka had done it so when they first met.

"I underestimated your skill. I am Hakurei Sayashu the rightful owner of this land" a grin formed into Yuuka's face, she charged and hit though Sayashu blocked nothing but air. Yuuka had disappeared and at the same time appeared on her back, it was a simple hit, though it was clean and hard. She started to bleed for Yuuka was only playing with her.

She started to see that the club had the same inscriptions than those in her axe, those marks were in the bow too. This girl was carrying a rudra weapon, the deadliest of all physical celestial weaponry ever made. Sayashu had deeply underestimated her, she was not giving it even near her all, she just wanted to scare this person away, instead she was starting to get tired and hurt, every time she tried to hit her she just disappeared and reappeared where her guard was wide open.

Sayashu realized that to beat this person she would need to fight just like how she did with Shiva. Most likely Yuuka kept that appearance to deceive her enemies, so that she would be underestimated then crush her enemies with her real power. In fact she even looked like a weak youkai at first sight, her presence barely different from that of a flower.

When she stopped to underestimate her enemy she was able to realize that she was not disappearing, she was moving. Yuuka did not move in the dimensions but instead between them, getting into those places exclusive to strings and getting out of them once she was where she wanted to be. Though by doing that she did not cover her smell which turned out to be very strong, she could hide her power well, but the smell was a totally different story. She could smell the twisted path of her movement in the extended Calabi-Yau dimensions, and managed to block and counter the attack. Yuuka barely dodged.

Quickly Sayashu had found a way to fight completely matched to this new person, Yuuka could move in strange ways, but her reflexes were slower. Both had about the same strength which caused much chaos around Mount Aka once they started to become serious. Each blow from those two shattered the earth in a much worse way than any earthquake they had experienced. Gods had started to fight giving it their all without realizing the world is a very small place for such power, they had not even warmed up.

Sayashu's muscles started to feel warm and ready to give it their all, thinking Yuuka would be easily defeated now. Yuuka however started to show that she was holding back as much as well, from her back six light wings showed up, she had been hiding them, hindering her power giving it up to the extended dimensions and thus slowing her movement, the main purpose of this was to train herself without the need of a special regime, every movement was a challenge.

Their movement was too fast for even tengu to see, the crash of their weaponry was so harsh the shock wave cleared half of the mountain from all kind of life. It was then when Sayashu could see why Yuuka had been so slow this entire time, the shock had also removed part of the skin on her face and arms. The sight was gory, it looked like she was wearing the skin as another layer of clothing. Yuuka was confused by the pain for a fraction of a second, a moment her enemy did not waste and used to strike her in the right arm in an skinless portion thinking she would be weaker on that side.

As it turned out she cut the arm clean off, though the shock of her limb being cut off snapped Yuuka back into reality and punched Sayashu in an oddly short distance with a great strength. As she started to get air back into her lungs, Sayashu could see that the arm regenerated quickly, though not the skin covering it. The smell of herbs was now stronger in the air than ever before, Yuuka's blood dripped on the earth making new life grow where the liquid touched the soil.

She used that same life to cover her arm with its leafs, this new patch was weaker than the skin she was wearing, though it was better than nothing. Sayashu dodged the hit and tried to hit back, Yuuka blocked with her club and kept her limbs stuck to Sayashu's. The Hakurei warrior tried to release herself from that odd grip but she realized that it was probably a trap, in fact it was a game of patience and skill. It was then where Mima dared to appear trying to strike Sayashu on the back with a star beam.

Yuuka quickly warped out of the lock midway between the laser and the other person. She pointed her open palm at the beam as if trying to block, but right after a bigger beam of light retaliated. The recoil of it caused all of Yuuka's skin to finally come off, Mima absolutely crushed from such a blast.

They poised themselves again for battle, though before they even thought of charging against the other Yukari appeared in the middle. Ran appeared right after blocking Sayashu's side, Yukari blocked Yuuka's. They were still too into the battle though the Yakumo knew exactly how to stop them from fighting.

Yukari held out a fresh human skin which snapped Yuuka out of her rage in a blink. Yukari even covered the red girl in torn red clad clothes to change. Ran in the other hand pulled out a box out of the gap where she came from, she opened it and inside there was the Hakurei orb, they had taken care of it without her knowing. She found this to be a good detail and took the orb realizing this would be a better long range weapon than the bow (which make her toss it to the air later on, the story of what happened to it will have to be mentioned another time).

Yukari apologized to the Hakurei maiden, as it turned out she was worried about the chaos that Sumiko had caused. Sumiko herself even asked Yukari to get someone to stop her, she was only following Tenma's orders and her own code of honor required her to carry them out. Sumiko wanted to stop though to do that she needed someone strong enough to stop her. Yukari quickly thought of the Rudra made after the Adityas, she was quite bored ever since she managed to train her sister into not fearing others.

Mount Aka was the most important place to keep safe since it was a gateway to the dream world and therefore to the moon. Thus Yuuka decided to make her own home there, she started to act out right away and her methods were so effective and intimidating that even Tenma asked Sumiko to stick to the safety of the Youkai Mountain only. Sayashu apologized for her behavior and grudgingly accepted the half of the mountain without flowers growing on it. Yuuka kept the half with a garden and enjoyed her free time in there.

Yuuka later on that night came to Sayashu's place, and handed her three cherry trees in sign of peace. Yuuka herself planted them on the back of the shrine though Sayashu asked her to avoid making them grow unaturally quickly. "Where did you hit him?" Yuuka asked after planting the trees and make them grow roots under the earth, Sayashu acted as if she did not know what she was talking about. "I can smell the blood on the blade, it is still fresh".

Upon realizing she could not hide that fact from Yuuka she answered honestly "On the head, it took me eight years to do so". Yuuka gave off a smug smile "Two years longer than I did". Sayashu could not take such an insult "He keeps improving, I fought him head on!". Yuuka kept her expression "I did too, he would have moved like I did if you started to do so… Though probably I set the bar too high for you". Sayashu looked at the trees without turning to see Yuuka "If it was me who studied with him first… It would have costed you decades to pass the test". Slowly starting to heat up, they both begun a new fight, however this time everyone that night were safe since they only used their words this time.


	11. XI How Koishi lost her third eye

XI Of how Shiva looks for a teacher to learn about his new power.

Both injuries he had received him allowed to see things beyond imagination. The wound at the heart allowed to see people's feelings, the one in his head to see their thoughts. Together those two wounds make up for a new power which turned him nearly omniscient. Though his own thoughts were too powerful and influenced others upon seeing them, a thing he did not like at all.

He asked Brahma what he could do, and Brahma told her about a race his daughter the Mouse, Shikieiki Yamaxanadu had made. It was mainly a set of two, they were little girls who had a third eye just like Shiva's (in concept not in shape) for them it was an external organ. Shiva thanked his brother and went to see the girls. In fact one of them shared the same skills he had with the mind, though she faced the same problems. The other could only see the mind of those who she saw.

Komeiji Koishi was the one who caught Shiva's attention, he wanted to know how she coped with the accidental influence one could have on the mind. Koishi simply answered to empty her mind, though it was hard at times, she preferred to be around people whose thoughts were close to hers so the change was minimum. Shiva found this to be a bad solution though he said nothing and left right away. Though Koishi could see what he had thought.

She tried to experiment and block the controlling, upon realization she saw that without her presence those she considered her friends were very afraid of her. She accidentally made them behave in so different ways that their personality was slowly erased. Koishi was just too powerful for them. Shiva in the other hand had realized that to keep the minds unchanged he would rather mimic them, at times accepting their ideas was enough, and he had the mistake of coming back to tell Koishi as a favor.

Koishi thanked the god and gave him a farewell. And so she started to do the same, though she could only sense fear and hate towards her power. Those around her really liked Koishi, but even her sister was afraid of her. Without the veil of the happiness they used she could see that they all wished that she was not capable of such things. Koishi hence decided to give up that power in exchange for the good of her friends.

She first stabbed the eye, though it was still capable of seeing, though not with the same sharpness it still did. Without giving herself a chance to prove to others that she was not the monster they thought she was, she proceeded to stitch the eye closed. Shiva had committed the mistake of giving such information to a little girl, she was not yet prepared for it. It wasn't something Shiva was aware of, Yamas always used new souls on their creations, so that old memories would not contaminate them. Rudras in the other hand did the opposite, they admired experience and always recycled souls. Koishi had no memory to hold herself back, and so she severed and wounded the only third eye capable of surpassing Shiva's.

Yama saw all of this, and grieved for her mistake, she should have stopped Shiva before, Koishi was too young. In fact she was the smaller of the two. She had just made them to take care of a land to used to be a hell. Though Yama realized that by blocking her third eye Koishi also blocked her conscious mind, she behaved on instinct only by now.

It turned out to be a blessing, the power she had lost from losing her third eye blocked her consciousness giving it a freeway to her subconscious to exploit her real power. As it turned out the third eye only allowed one to see thoughts, the Komeiji themselves are capable of seeing minds without words or meaning on their own. Now Koishi's mind was free of concepts, her subconscious turned out to be perfect to process abstract ideas, to exploit phobias, instincts. The fear of those around Koishi made her into something they feared even more now. Their conscious mind told them to leave, but their unconscious was manipulated so they stayed forever by her side.

Komeiji Satori was the only one who actually wanted to stay in Koishi's side, though she usually disappeared moved by her own primal desires. Though those instincts usually led back to home, where always waiting, always calm there was Satori, the only person who even with her fear, really loved Koishi.


	12. XII The birth of the lake of blood

XII The birth of the lake of blood. Diyu the purgatory of the pool of blood.

Humans did not like Sayashu more than they did Byakuren though she was the only one they could speak to. She never hurt any human being (other than those who died in the earthquake she caused when meeting Yuuka) so they accepted her as their voice and spoke to her about their needs. Speaking to Yuuka seemed impossible, those who had tried to meet her had hurt flowers to reach her, and that caused them to be as hurt as those flowers. Usually they left her notes though she never listened to problems they could fix on their own, stern, cruel and yet she did save them a couple of times from some demons. Sayashu on the other hand was more reliable to them, at least she knew what it felt to be human, to be helpless.

Sumiko was rarely seen anymore now that it was more than proven that she was nothing but a pawn of Tenma. She also had been proven to be the weakest possible guardian and thus she was not needed anymore. The atmosphere those days started to thicken little by little, more and more Youkai started to show up from further lands looking for help. Seemingly humans had started to develop machines and weapons with those machines which a few hunters started to use mixing them with runes in the bullets of those new firearms. In fact they were mass produced, automatic and more powerful than ever. It wasn't a good time for them anymore and the pressure started to fill.

Yuuka was almost hysterical and her punishment to humans started to be unreasonable. Apparently those humans with machines were hurting the earth in unspeakable levels, which made Yuuka take it on other humans. She even went as far as needing to take the skin of those she punished because the misuse of force made the one she wore break and tear apart.

Sayashu started to have dreams, where war would happen, where humanity would be wiped off from earth and a new race would come and take over. That very night the moon was died red and it was bigger than usual. Unlike other days Yuuka was not hiding her weapon in the guise of an umbrella, she was even wearing a red armor on her body. What surprised the Hakurei maiden more than anything was the fact that Yukari came to her, Yuuka was asking for her help this time. She usually liked to do things on her own, Sayashu did too, they were allies just because of Yukari, an old friend of the family for both of them.

When Sayashu arrived, Yuuka dismissed Yukari right away. Her words actually being "If I have to break your body to keep you out of this I will do it so" carried by the same warmth she usually spoke with, though this time there was an undertone of fear in them. From far away they could see shining lights, reflects from the moon, metallic weaponry and armor, there was a whole battalion coming.

The moon had sent their troops ahead of time, hoping to destroy humans and leave Kalki no other option but to save his lunar kind. This was an unexpected more, but something that respected the prophecies and thus it was not a motif of war among gods. Yuuka held no empire on her own, she was a Rudra and held onto many things, though she never found the need to keep an empire under her head like an Aditya. This made her capable of being a wild card and do whatever she pleased without much consequences, Yukari brought her because of that.

On the front lines there were moon rabbits heavily armed with artillery pieces, behind them lunarian soldiers holding spears and all the way to the back swordsmen carrying shields. Yuuka looking like a small girl carrying a weapon too heavy to carry, Sayashu looking so hurt, both posed no threat to the lines, that until they tried to pass through them in the small gate of the cave. The sheer resilience of Sayashu made the artillery pieces useless, Yuuka was not prone to those attacks either, her armor could resist those blasts without much of a problem, she only wore it to protect her skin.

Both engaged quickly, the rabbits where the first ones to fall, their bodies completely crushed and torn apart. Those two clearly were nothing they should take lightly the moon bunnies seemed weak during that battle but truly they could have crushed the human forces without much effort. The spear men closed in a tight position so that they could protect the lines in the back in a spiky shield. Though the giant blast Yuuka could perform and the Hakurei orb broke those lines with the same ease they did the rabbit lines. Blood kept crawling on the stone floor, so much that it started to accumulate.

Master Spark, the first energy celestial weapon Sayashu witnessed. To others it was known as Aranjani Astra though Yuuka preferred the first name for her own personal weapon. Though when in war one uses an astra, you just taunt the enemy to retaliate with weapons like that. The next blow came from a single bowman, he stood out from the remaining lines, still untouched, unharmed. Arrows with a purple aura had come down upon them, and dodging them seemed easy though upon contact with the floor they created a big explosion. Nalika arrows, prohibited to use in most wars though this was an unofficial battle and Yuuka had started using Master Spark which made it acceptable for him to do so.

Sayashu managed to block some of those by multiplying her orb and making a shield out of them, a technique she learned from her mother. Both thought of the same solution, they could hide in the remaining lines, though the man behind them did not care about them at all. Easily Yuuka and Sayashu could batter and finish the remaining Lunarian lines though this person was something completely different.


End file.
